Hello and welcome to Out of the Darkroom
on AdoramaTV.
I'm Ruth Medjber and today
I'm chatting again to photojournalist
Charles McQuillan
Thanks for sticking with us. Now if you
could begin to introduce me to all of
these fabulous lenses that I have been
eyeing up. The toys the toys.. we can
start at the bottom and work our way up
to the top?
Ah just dig in!
Right! Ok so the widest lens, I haven't
brought everything with me today!
You haven't brought anything with you are
you serious?
So 14-24mm. Yes!
That's the that's the kind of that's the
leveller in the press scrum
so when that lens comes
out all the Canon users .. well they
..obviously they start getting nervous!
This is super wide? Right?
Super wide and it's a fantastic lens because
it actually doesn't distort as much as
it you would really think it should do
at 14mm it doesn't, it's a masterpiece
of a lens it's a fantastic piece of
glass really, really amazing!
So you use this mainly when it's a news
story or something
It's a news story or it's
really tight and there's a bit of a scrum.
You've got loads of TV crews
and other photographers and a lot of pushing
and elbows and that kind of thing.
Ok so your like that's cool, so you don't
need like you're kind of probably on top
of the person you're shooting. Yeah!
Everyone else coming in.
Yes these things always seem to happen
in tight spaces.
There's never you know there's never any
decorum and everybody just kind
of goes in, this is the kind of that's
the get out of jail card.
There's a couple that I
do recognize and that I have as well
24-70mm is another fantastic lens, I think
actually they talk about, I think they
talk about that the 14-24mm and 24-70mm
and they're 70-200mm as the Trinity of Nikon
lens. That's it - it's like the Holy Trinity.
I think that's pretty much across all
genres of photography. What we'd all use right?
Yeah I mean, that probably is the most
used lens, certainly for feature stuff.
it's such a good lens its f/2.8
Would love to shoot primes and nothing
but primes, but you just don't have
that luxury whenever your shooting and it has so
much versatility, versatility with that
lens yeah. Yes great good! I know
it's stuck on my camera forever and ever
and ever! That's it like.
Right okay and this which I'm personally
humming and hawing about..
about buying at the moment,
and the 24mm f/1.4
One for review please, so then I make my
mind of whether I'm going to buy it or not!
so the f/1.4, obviously prime, it's, it's
a special lens for we would say special
occasions but whenever you want to try
and do something that's just a you know
lift the picture a wee bit.
Where you have the
time to do it. It's not a large scrum so
the thing about this one, this lens, is
that it's not going to be sharp at f/1.4
all the time...
It just isn't... you just you just have
to live with that, you're, some
of your shots, there isn't going to even
seem to be any point of focus in that,
there's just going to be soft,
Yeah, but whenever, you know the other
half of the time whenever it's pin... it's
just dead stunning, so your going to
get that creamy, sort of bokeh texture on
the outside you know? Your focus point
again I would use that more for kind of
feature work. If it was a hard news story
and everything needs to be sharp in case
something happens, that wouldn't be the
lens I would have on the camera.
I would stick with the 24-70mm.
Ok this bad boy.
another familiar lens
Yes the 70-200mm, yeah! Is this another go to lens for you?
Yeah, this is another here again perfect
lens for, I would use that, on a
second camera if it was doing a sports
event and things get wee bit closer,
or if it's live action you're gonna drop
down to 70-200mm.
Primarily I shot on the D5 my second
body is the D4S, and that's for
day-to-day news stuff.
then if I'm shooting features, I shoot on
the D810 because, it's the image quality is
better but it's a camera that needs to
be treated slower.
Yeah treated with more care and
it doesn't seem to have, you can kind of
make mistakes with these two cameras and
you can kind of get away, with it, whereas
I think with the D810 it punishes you,
and it's not just your your shutter speed
Or a wee bit of camera shake.. it's going to
be there, so it's a, it's a it's a more
disciplined camera to use.
Absolutely I think the D4S is quite a
forgiving camera
Yeah I mean I can go into like a
club and shoot really dark, yeah, you know
and slightly mess things up and just
rescue it later, and it's fine, so that's
probably why I'm suited well to it and you
were saying the D5 is incredible,
it's even better than the D4S?
I think yeah it's definitely, it's definitely,
faster and the autofocus is more
consistent yeah, so that's a big big plus,
And you know that extra however...
many frames a second which is always debatable
Yes, it does make a difference it can
mean you know, I've noticed from
shooting digital Nikons, you know, even
as simple as you know, you're shooting a
goal mouth and before, you know the ball
was either on the foot, and then the ball
was either gone, or at the very edge of
the frame, you're actually getting maybe
extra frames with the ball, and that's,
that's, that's big. That's what you rely
on! Yes, I mean these are all serious
professional cameras, I mean people
watching this though I started on a Nikon
D70 they were proper toy cameras now.
And I shot my first billboard campaign
on this, so you can actually do loads
with the camera you have regardless, you
don't need to spend so much money on it.
Totally, I think whenever you're buying
the pro end cameras you're really buying
durability, and that's, that's, it's not, I
mean, even I could go back to film days
you had your top of the range camera
would have been in the F3, so that was
the be all and end all, and it was that way
for a very, very, long time. Whereas
nowadays the top end camera is the
D810, when it comes to quality, biggest
file size but it's not the most
expensive cameras so it doesn't
necessarily hold that the most expensive
is the best. And definitely not the best
for you whatever you are doing. No. Yeah
No the game has changed certainly in that way Ruth.
Absolutely. So this brings
us on nicely to this giant elephant in the room.
This lens that's been staring us down
this whole time. The 600mm. The 600mm it's amazing.
It's a beast of a lens, this is what you
shot that fantastic surfer shoot on. Yeah.
The photograph of the Alistair, Al Mennie at
the end of the pier yes.
There's a bit of a story with that
photograph in as much as generally the
600mm is not a lens you would hand hold at any time
it's heavy.. you want to try lifting it?
I don't know it's mental!.
I think this is this is, it's taller than my knee.
Okay right so.
You're, you're you hand hold this!
So not are a rule, not as rule!
Ok, if I drop this sorry.
Ol... oh my god, so that day a surfer, Al
that day was running from right to left
down the line, so I I'm down the beach,
and it was obviously was a really stormy day.
And in that location there is a
bar mouth which is effectively two piers
that run out right parallel to each other
with a river running out. Al would use
that like almost like a ski lift, so you
get in the river and the river will
carry you out the back of the waves, and
you know you can get back on the waves
again, rather than having to you know
really fight to go through, through, the
wash. So al had already caught a couple of
waves, and then he decided instead of
getting into the water in the river and
getting the ski left, he started to
walk up the pier! I realized right...
there's a picture in this, but I'm way
out of position maybe two, three
hundred yards way out of position, so I dropped
the monopod because it's going to be really
awkward to run with, and just run with
the D810 and the 600mm to get
in the position along the dune.
Ran with this!
Yeah, so it was it was a good was a good a,
test for strength of strength
and of my heart, after that operation obviously...
So I just got into position and no more, heaving it
breathe it in, trying to steady myself,
and handhold the six hundred, and get the
frame sharp.
What would you've been set at
to get that? Well it wasn't bright that day,
so and I hadn't the ISO pushed
really high because the D810 won't
go anywhere near as high as a D5 or D4S,
so I think probably my shutter
speed would have been down to, I think
probably 500th of a second,
which is you know you're borderline
they're really. Yeah. Yeah, but there's a
way, I mean it personally for me
sometimes you have to handhold,
and there's nothing else you can do, I
kind of dig my elbow into anchor myself and just
try and steady myself up, and I did at that
point a drop down onto my knees so I was
trying to really just sort of kind of
level the camera as much as possible.
I mean that's pin sharp.
Amazing shot. Yes.
And what also it did was
because it was shot in
the 600mm I didn't have enough time to the think
... ah we shouldn't.. we should be shooting on this
shooting on that... the 600mm really
compressed the image which made it even
punchier, which made Al look.. you
know, you know, fantastic against that wave.
And as well I just noticed we didn't
talk about your flashes, so you've got two
SB900's then. I use the nine hundreds
I just haven't upgraded Ruth
But they're brilliant.
But they're brilliant,
when they don't overheat, they're brilliant.
Brilliant flashes. I loved those as well I loved
working with them.
So do you do a lot of
off camera?
Yeah I would use a lot of, if I
was shooting feature stuff, generally
speaking I would. Again it's either
one way or the other, either
there are no lights or off shoe
and I'd very rarely, very rarely, would shoot
anything on shoe, yeah
have off the side, it just just lifts.
Yeah definitely, and then when you were
doing your your heart surgery photographs,
tell me about what was set up and where?
That would have probably been D3's come to
think of it, so it was a case of, I use
Pocket Wizards as, because I use the old
ones, which are the transceivers because
they're the most consistent, over the
greatest distance. I've tried some of the
digital. I've seen a lot of
people using some of the the Japanese
imports and stuff, and they are really
good but as regards consistency and
distance the polarisers just just for me
can't be beat, so you've got so much
experience across so many different
genres of photography, and I know all of
our audience watching this also have a
massive interest in photography. Could
you impart some of your wisdom to us
and maybe give us a tip and just so that we
can better our own shooting styles, or
even just progress our career a little bit.
Mmmm first thing I would say
Ruth, is that I make mistakes... all the
time, like there's yeah, there's many
there's plenty, nearly every day I come
away saying, well, I should have done this
different or I should have done.. and
you become obsessed, sometimes not by the
pictures you have taken put the pictures
you've missed. So the first thing I'm saying
is take plenty of pictures, get out, walk,
you know, when you walk, and I see and
stuff just take pictures, you have to get
out there, and probably the other thing
if you're a beginner... this is not a tip
for anybody that's you know obviously, is
interested in photography or hs been taking
pictures for a while, is for
beginners I find a lot of beginners are
shooting on automatic all the time, so I
say to him look don't shoot on automatic
shoot on manual, you're maybe not gonna you
know get it straight away but eventually
you're going to quickly pick up you know
your depth of field, and your shutter
speeds, rather than let the camera figure
out for you. You just need to be more immersed
in it, and you've more control, and tell
us then, you've got so much digital
equipment here, have you every ever any
notions of going back to film. Um there
is a couple of film cameras in the house
that are really just ornaments now!
There's an F3 sits which is just
fantastic look at and hold
Has a motor driver, it's just you know I
think it's the best camera ever made
to actually hold! I don't know if you
The big motor drive it's just, it's a
it's a chunk of metal, aw it's just lovely.
And there is an old Mamiya, I think it's a
C 330 F or something. That's certainly
nice but, I did have an Xpan Hasselblad
Xpan which I get rid of a while back. I
think I'm going to purchase it again. I do a
project just in kind of CinemaScope, kind
of wide. And I have a couple of ideas and
so I'm going to go back to that and then just I'll
dev the films myself, and then have
them digitally scanned.
And would that be more of like a personal
project or is it
like a commission you have in mind.
I would say it will be a mixture, both I think,
I have an idea for it so but then I want
somebody obviously to pay for it, yeah so I
can clog back some of the cost.
Yes I know it all too well... fantastic.
Yeah, it's been an absolute insight into
your world and I've loved playing with
all the gear and I loved hearing your
stories and I can't thank you enough for
coming and joining me today.
Thank you Ruth.
Well that's all we have time for in this episode.
I really hope you enjoyed the show.
If you'd like to brush up on your own
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Thanks, and I'll see you again soon.